Offshore Japan Seminar, 5 February 2016

On Feb 5 an offshore Japan seminar will be held in Rotterdam.
This is initiated by Rotterdam Partners, Direction East and Dutch – Japanese Maritime Desk and supported by the IRO.See attached invitation and below info for the background and details of the initiative.

Introduction
Due to the interest and developments in the offshore, oil and gas, industry in the Japanese maritime cluster an initiative has started to see how the Netherlands maritime cluster could get involved and / or enhance their so far limited presence. The trigger for the initiative is the announcement back in early 2014 that ‘Japan corporate’ announced their decision to re-enter the offshore business. Since than the developments have been monitored and the time seems right to start this initiative.
Note: corporate Japan means: government, associations, ClassNK, marine suppliers, shipyards, shipping companies, maritime research institutes and other maritime related parties

Background
In the 1970’s Japan was actively involved in the offshore construction business.
In the early 1980’s Japan has shifted their attention to ‘standard’ shipbuilding and the offshore was abandoned.
The Netherlands on the other hand shifted their attention to the offshore.

Over the years Japan and the Netherlands have drifted apart in the maritime field and there is now limited contact, cooperation and interest except for the logistics business.
Other countries in Europe like Germany, Greece and Norway are still on the ‘radar’ of Japan due to their new-building orders at Japanese shipyards. These are also the countries that Japan considers to develop their offshore business together with. In addition, Japan looks at USA, Brazil, Australia, Singapore and UK where considerable offshore activities of interest for Japan take place.

Consideration
With the renewed interest of Japan for the offshore business there are maybe chances to reconnect for the Dutch maritime cluster with Japan in this field.
In order to ‘kick start’ this connection an offshore Japan PIB could be a possible useful tool